The present disclosure relates generally to medical device alarm modeling and, more particularly, to medical device alarm modeling features for setting alarm limits.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, doctors often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of devices have been developed for monitoring many such characteristics of a patient. Such devices provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with the information they need to provide the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become an indispensable part of modern medicine.
Patient monitors include medical devices that facilitate measurement and observation of patient physiological data. For example, pulse oximeters are a type of patient monitor. A typical patient monitor cooperates with a sensor to detect and display a patient's vital signs (e.g., temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate) and/or other physiological measurements (e.g., water content of tissue, blood oxygen level) for observation by a user (e.g., clinician). For example, pulse oximeters are generally utilized with related sensors to detect and monitor a patient's functional oxygen saturation of arterial hemoglobin (i.e., SpO2) and pulse rate. Other types of patient monitors, such as blood pressure monitors, may be utilized to detect and monitor other physiological parameters. Further, the patient monitors may be incorporated into other types of medical devices, such as mechanical ventilators and anesthesia machines, among others.
A patient monitor may be designed to alert a caregiver when certain physiological conditions are recognized. For example, a pulse oximeter may produce a visual and/or audible alarm when a patient's oxygen saturation exceeds a predetermined threshold. The predetermined alarm thresholds may be set by the patient monitor, and, in certain circumstances, may be customizable by a user. Further, in addition to alarm thresholds, a patient monitor may be designed to provide more complex alarm features. For example, a patient monitor may be designed to minimize clinically insignificant alarms and/or to recognize patterns in physiological data. The alarms may be based on multiple variables and may interact with other alarms, which may complicate the setting of alarm limits by a caregiver.